This is a continuation from my other post but I got a whole new set of problems. I just replaced the axel and bearings. Noise is still there. I jacked the front end up and tried to isolate the noise. Sound is coming from the driver side of the tranny while in gear. Is this as bad as I think it is? I checked the tranny fluid and it was about an inch above the full mark(never checked til now) and looked tan and a little foamy (shouldn't it look like oil?). I have zero knowledge about transmissions. It shifts fine but when on the throttle in gear it makes a hell of a racket. I can only guess it has some kind of bearing in the tranny where the nub that the axel connects to is? I would really appreciate any thoughts or insight.

well when i first bought the ole turbo wagon, the trans made some god awful sounds.. it was soo loud ya couldn't turn the stock stereo up loud enough to hear it..

 

it was a mix between a whine and grinding sound.. very wicked.. it shifted fine, and the previous owner said it'd been makin that sound for over 100k.. but i replaced it anyways, just cause i didn't like the noise..

I have a spare 4 spd d/r out of a BRAT. It was said to be good. (I never ran the car) If you want/need it, email me and we will work something out. I still owe you ten bucks. Boz (It's in the Bloomsburg area).

The fluid was tan and foamy? Normally the fluid should be almost clear, and the foamy part is either air being whipped into it, or water, I would guess. My 4sp whines in 4th, but performs fine. It's just a whiner.:boohoo:

Did you say you already replaced both axles? Does the sound go away when you let off on the gas and come back when you step on it? If so, that's characteristic of the DOJ (inner joint) on the axle. I've had some that were so bad I thought the transmission was falling out of the car. A re-built axle cured it just fine. It wouldn't be the first time I've gotten a rebuilt axle with a bad DOJ.

Edrach,you nailed the symtoms correctly, on the gas scary,off the gas nothin. I can make it proprtionally less loud(if that makes any sense)if I back off the throttle a little it will sound less terrifying. I did change the axels out. Same symptoms though. It's very loud and gets louder with the overall speed of the vehicle. For example, it'll be loud at 25mph in3rd gear but not half as loud as 50mph in 4th gear. What are the odds of 2 axel replacements with the same results?

 

PhatBrat-Thanks for the offer, although I don't think I can handle swappin' tranny's at this point without a garage. Gettin' too damn cold and we're gettin' snow tonight.:madder:

if it goes away when off the gas, i would say its the inner cv joint, I just bought an axle from car quest and it had a bad inner joint

It is indicative that the noise is coming from just one side. If the insides were bad, the noise would come out all over due to the vibration inherent in the case. One side almost always is because of vibration coming up the shaft from either the bearings or the CV.

 

This is why u should always go new or high quality rebuilt when you do bearings and tie rods, ball joints and CV's. This job takes too long and is too hard to have to keep doing over again due to rusty parts from sitting in a junkyard for 5-10 years.

 

MD

Well - that may be true in your area LW - up here Subaru's don't sit in the yard for 5 years - more like 1 or 2 months, then they are crushed..... so a lot of our junkyard parts are pretty good.

 

Just the other day my friend needed a rear wheel bearing race replaced, and those are pressed into the drum. So we went to the yard, and we scored a basically brand new drum, with brand new bearings and the grease in it was even still purple - couldn't have been very old. No one had touched it because it was "rusty" - the REASON it was rusty tho is cause the drum was a replacement, and hadn't been painted prior to installation.

 

And tranny fluid is 90w gear oil - it's a little tanish in color. It's not supposed to be clear, and it's definately not supposed to be black. It really should look like brand new motor oil, since there's no carbon to contaminate it in the tranny.

 

GD